Mowrer, a 31-year-old Army veteran, has previously run for Congress in Iowa’s 3rd and 4th Districts. He’s now vying for the Secretary of State’s Office, he said, to ensure voter access in Iowa elections and to modernize the state’s business filing system.

In an interview, Mowrer was critical of incumbent Republican Secretary Paul Pate’s management of the office, faulting him for an Election Day incident in which more than 5,800 votes were not counted in Dallas County last year.

“That is unacceptable,” Mowrer said of the vote-counting error. “I think it’s a disqualifier.”

The error did not affect the outcome of any contests and was made by county election officials, although the results were certified by Pate’s office. (Pate’s office also caught the error, when comparing different datasets months after the election.)

Pate, a Republican, has not formally announced whether he’ll seek another term in the office. A spokesman in the Secretary of State’s Office said he’s focused on the job – “not politics.”

“Secretary Pate is Iowa’s commissioner of elections and is dedicated to protecting the integrity of Iowa’s elections and encouraging every eligible Iowan to participate while also overseeing Iowa’s business portal, which has processed a record amount of new business filings under his leadership,” spokesman Kevin Hall said in a statement on Wednesday.

Mowrer also criticized legislation passed into law earlier this year by the Republican legislature, which shortens the state’s early-voting period and eliminates straight-ticket voting among several other changes to election procedures. The steps are meant to limit, rather than expand, voter participation, he said.

In an interview, he recalled one of his earliest efforts in voter engagement came during a deployment to Iraq with the Iowa National Guard in 2006. While stationed in Anbar Province, he said, he helped other Iowa soldiers navigate the arcane absentee voting process; some received their ballots and were able to return them in time for Election Day. Some weren’t.

Mowrer’s candidacy comes after several other Democrats suggested they may run for the office and then pulled back. Deputy Attorney General Nathan Blake briefly considered a run before withdrawing his name, as did Johnson County Auditor Travis Weipert. Mowrer said Wednesday that Weipert is now serving as a co-chairman on his campaign.